The Sunrise Story

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! First quarter ended yesterday. I love that we get opportunities to start fresh a few times each year. We end our nine weeks of hard work with a reading celebration called the Zone Day.  We bring lots of books to read. We stretch out on desks and pillows. We settle in and read. It's heavenly! We spent some time reading our read aloud book too.  Yesterday I read Karen Harrington's new book, Mayday. It's not released until May, but I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy.  I gobbled it up in one day! It's full of drama...about a boy named Wayne who is struggling to figure out who he is supposed to be. This is happening as he survives a plane crash and learns to deal with his family and friends. Wayne is such a likable character! Karen Harrington, the author, writes tragedy so well. She communicates the layers of life...everything isn't all ...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . Traveling changes my perspective.  I get a chance to slow down and look at things from another angle. My cousin got married this weekend and I drove up to Massachusetts to be there.  I could have flown, but there's something about that long drive that brings me peace. I know the route like the back of my hand, so I can relax into the drive.  It's been fifteen years that I've been taking this route home and I feel like I  notice different things each time. This trip brought brilliant autumn leaves. I love the freedom of leaving before the world wakes up and watching the sun rise.  Rest stops provide a moment to stop and look around. Flying might save time, but it doesn't bring me peace of mind. I figure th...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! Time with family is precious. This weekend, my cousin is getting married so I drove north!! Driving through New England in the fall is amazing. I gasped over and over again at the colors. I'd forgotten how vibrant and gorgeous the colors are. I attempted some pictures, but they just don't do it justice. About an hour after I arrived, the school bus delivered two very special packages. We made some arts and crafts.  We took silly pictures. Jack showed me a very special box that his mom bought for him.  He told me that he's going to use this box to hold notes from me. When I leave, I usually leave before anyone in the house is awake. (It's a long drive and leaving early helps the trip move along.) I started leaving notes for Jack when he was little and now I leave one for both Jack and Jillian. He keeps them all and now he's...

I loved the Back to the Future movies when they came out in the 80s. Today is the future! Marty McFly and Doc went to Wednesday, October 21, 2015 in the second Back to the Future movie. The movie was made almost thirty years ago, in 1989. Lots of the predictions they made were correct. I found this video which shares ten thing the movie got right. Take a look... What do you think will happen thirty years from now? I think the best thing about the predictions is they were so specific. Some were wrong, but so many were right. What do you think about that? 

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . My slice today comes to you in two parts. First... Two years ago, on October 22nd , I began writing on this blog. 367 blog posts later, here I am.  I'm proud of this accomplishment. It means I have showed up every week to write. It proves that I am a writer which leads me to part two of my blog post... I will answer the question: Why I Write? Today is the National Day on Writing sponsored by NCTE . I've been thinking about this question for awhile. There are so many reasons that I write... I write to untangle my insides. I write to communicate my feelings. I write to think, to figure things out. I write to calm myself down. I write to learn. I write to explore new worlds. I write to express myself. I write ...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! Celebrating my students today! We launched our blogs. I nudged and pushed and stretched them this week. We became problem solvers. We became published writers. We worked hard and worked together and created our own place in the blogosphere. I celebrate their perseverance and their strong writing voice. This week we took a little time to relax. Recess!! I think this picture says it all! New books. A favorite author of mine, Adriana Trigiani, published a new book. It is based on the true story of the Hollywood star Loretta Young. Her words are like a symphony on paper. I am loving this book and if you are looking for something good to read, grab it! This morning as I was walking my dog, Bella, I noticed that I was rehashing my week and searching for the celebrations in it. It made me smile and grateful for this opportunity to share. Thank you!

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . Music was different when I was a kid. Not music. Access to music was different...how we listened to music was different. Listening to music has always been a big part of my life. We listened to the radio in the car.  We sang along!  I had a record player in my bedroom.  I remember desperately wanting to see the movie "Grease" but I was too young. I begged and begged until I got the record to listen to in my room. I listened to it over and over and over again. As I grew older, my music delivery system became more and more sophisticated. That record player turned into a stereo. This is the one I had... Stereo with record player and double cassette deck I'd sit for hours and listen to the radio...lots of time the waiti...

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Tara, Beth, Anna, Kathleen & Deb for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers . I love seeing people make their dreams come true. My friend Chrissy made her dream come true. She is an amazing teacher and a wonderful mother. Chrissy, like so many of us, dreamt of writing a book. She had the story, inspired by her own experiences as a mom. She lived the words written by Toni Morrison, "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Chrissy wrote it. She never gave up on it and it was released on August 29th. The Early Bird is a beautiful picture book of a mother's love. It's about a child's love for his mother. There are lovely pictures and beautiful text. Inspired by her own son, Chrissy writes a sweet story about a baby bird who arrive...

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us! Today I celebrate mail...specifically thank you notes. For the past few weeks, I've been trying to send out some mail each week. Real mail. Cards. Sometimes the card is to help someone smile and sometimes it's saying thank you. I started sharing notes and cards with colleagues at work too. I try to drop a note or card in a mailbox or on someone's desk, especially when they aren't expecting it.  The world feels big and sad and overwhelming lately. I can't fix it, but I can do this. Show those you love how you feel. Tell people thank you! You will be surprised at how meaningful it is!  I love taking the time to pick out the right card for the right person! Jotting a note to them makes it personal and special. It brings me joy to do all of this and I hope it brings them some joy too. I have all of my mailing supplies organized and ready to go at a moment...